Spinning frame



Deg-18,1945. L.M.ICOTCHETTI v SPINNING FRAME Original Filed July 16,1941 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 WNW Ell

De.'18, 1945. 1. M. COTCHETT 2,391,135 P SPINNING FRAME Original FildJuly 16, i94l 4.Sheets-Sheet 2 Dec. 18, 1945. COTCHETT 2391135 ISPINNING FRAME Original Filed July 16, 1941 4 Sheets-Shegt 3 -I I //-Be26 B 86 B IQ I 0 Dec. 18, 1945, L. COTCHETT 2,391,135

SPINNING FRAME Original Filed July 16, 1941 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 PatentedDec. 18, 1945 SPINNING Louis M. Cotchett, Hingham, Mass; assignor toSatin-Lowell Shops, Boston, Mass, at corporation of Maine Originalapplication July 16, 1941, Serial No.

bet 2, 1943, Serial N0. 508,673

402,581. Divided and this application Novem- 10 Claims. (cum -c.)

This invention relates to spinning frames, more especially of the typeused in' cotton spinning,v

and it has for its general object to efiect economi'es in themanufacture and use of machines of this type.

More specific objects of the invention are to reduce the floor spacerequired by a spinning frame" to the end of reducing the overheadexpense involved in the spinning operation, and to facilitate theservicing which any spinning frame requires; especially that involved inreplacing empty roving bobbins, piecing up, and similar operations.

An analysis of the labor costs in a cotton spinning room shows that asurprisingly high proportion of such costs is-for cleaning. In somemills this proportion will run as high as forty percent. of theentireoperating cost. Cleaning is important primarily from thestandpoint of quality of the product manufactured. Or, to state thematter differently, if the spinning frames are not kept clean of lintand fly a notice able drop in quality occurs. This fact is well known inthe industry and it is the controlling reason for the expenditure of somuch time and pains in keeping the machines clean.

Accordingly; a further important object of this invention is to devise aspinning frame which, in avery substantial measure, will keepv itselfclean.

The nature of the invention. will be readily understood from thefollowing description when read in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in theappendedclaims.

In; the drawings,

Fig. l is a plan view of a portion of. a spinning frame constructed inaccordance with this invention;

Fig. 72' is a side elevation of that part of the machine shown in Fig.1.;

Fig. 3 is a verticaLsectional view approximately on the line 3-3, Fig.l; 1

Fig. 4 is-ahorizontal section, the plane of section being taken justabove the bobbin whorls;

Fig. 5 is a. perspective view of a portionof a, spinning, frame at thetail. end of. the machine showing a preferred method. of enclosing themechanism inthe machine base; and

. Fig. 6 is a view, partly in side elevation and partly in verticalsection showing a detail of construction of the thread board.

Referring first to Figs. 2 and 3, a spinning, frame is thereshown ofatype disclosed in an. earlier application ofmine, now issued as PatentNo; 2,295,935. Thismachine comprises sectional units secured end to end,each unit being. substantially a complete spinning machine except for adriving mechanism. As illustrated, each section includes two lines ofspindles 2 mounted at opposite sides of the frame, each spindle be.-ingadapted to support a bobbin, and all thespindles being driven bybands or tapes which, in.

turn, are driven from. a central cylinder 3, 3 Cooperating, with therespective. lines of spindles are the usual rings mounted on ring rails4-, thread boards 55, and two rows of sets of draw ing rolls 66 whichdraw. strands of roving fromv the supply bobbins and feed them laterallyto the two lines of spindles.

So far as this' general arrangement of the parts or mechanisms mentionedis concerned, the

machine 'isessentially like those already known.

In prior art constructions it. has been the uni.- versal practice tomount. a creel for supporting the supply bobbins between the lines ofdrawing. rolls atopposite sides of the frame. Usually the creel board ispositioned on and. between the roller beams on which the roll stands,are mounted, and the lowest lines, rows, or tiers of roving. bobbins areabout on a level with the drawing,

rolls. Above these. lower tiers there usually are one or more additionaltiers of bobbins. Such an arrangement necessarily, increases the widthoffthe frame by a distance equal to the width of the creel. Usuall thefirst story of the creel stand is designed to, accommodate fourlongitudinal'rows of bobbins, and. if double roving is to be run, thenthe creel must include a second story accommodating four more row ofbobbins. With this arrangement it is not easy for an operator of averageheight and reach to replace an empty bobbin with a full one and to pieceup. One of the objects of this invention, therefore,

is to devise novel spinning frame and creel structures' which willfacilitate these operations.

It will be seen from an inspection of' Fig. 3 that in the spinning frameprovided by this inventionthe creel is positioned above the machine, thelower story of roving bobbins, B consisting simply of two rows or tiersmounted directly over their respective rows of drawing rolls 6 andspaced from them only by a distance suflicient. for convenience inpiecing up and performing the servicing operations.

Attention is particularly directed to the fact that this ie-arrangement. permits a reductionin the width of the frame to abouthalf that of" the present commercial constructions, due chiefly toOFFICE rows of drawing roll sets, the positioning of these rolls back toback, and the reduction of the space between them to a distance lessthan the normal diameter of a full roving bobbin, or, in other words, toa distance less than the overall lateral width of either of said rows ofdrawing roll sets, as will be evident from an inspection of Fig. 3.Also, by.mounting the, creel substantially as shown, the lower ends ofthe lowermost bobbins may be positioned below the shoulder level of aperson of average height so that all of the bobbins in the creel thenare within convenient reach. Moreover, since the bobbins are above ordirectly over the drawing rolls instead of behind them,

an operator standing at either side of the machine is within easyreaching distance of all of the bob:- bins for that side.

The creel structure itself is of skeleton form and will be bestunderstood from the detailed description and illustration thereofcontained in my application Ser. No. 402,581, of which the present'caseis adivision. For present purposes it is sufficient to point out thatthe creel structure preferably is made in sections corresponding to thesectional units of which the machine is composed. That portion of thecreel for the extreme left-hand section shown in Figs. 1 and 2 comprisestwo upright posts 1 and 8 mounted at opposite ends'of the section, and ahorizontal bar 10 supported on them. Extending through this bar areseveral cross bars, two of which are relatively short and are shown at lI, the others, indicated at l2, being considerably longer. Some of thebobbins are suspended from'these bars, while'others are supported instanding positions on them.

It should also be observed that the bars and rods which form thestructural elements of the creel are all made of circular cross-sectionso that they present no flat horizontal surfaces on which "lint and flycan lodge. On the contrary, these surfaces are so curved or sloped thatthey naturally I, shed material of this nature and the creel thereforekeeps itself clean at practically all times. Thus the labor of cleaningthe creel is substantially eliminated. I have found that the labor ofcleaning may further be reduced very materially by covering the spacebetween the lines cfs'pindles with'some kind of a smooth surfaced platesuch as that shown at 36 in Figs. 3, 4 and 5. Preferably; also, theentire base of the machine is enclosed by side plates 37 and additionalplates, such'as shown at 38 or 39, where required at an end of theframe. Each of the side plates 31 includes a supplemental plate 31' ofapproximately L-section secured to its respective plates 31 by a pia o tpe hi ge so that it may be swung outwardly to expose the whorls whendesired. The margins of the top plate 36 rest on the inner margins ofthe curved plates v31, the three sets of plates being notched, as shownat 4B in Fig. 5, to fit around the spindles. Normally the plate 35is'held in its operative position by pins or screws so that they may bequickly taken out to permit its removal whenever desired. The abuttingedges of adjoining side plates may be covered by strips such as thoseshown at 4 l 7 With a construction of this nature I have found that'thelint and flywhich naturally tends to settle down between the lines ofspindles is prevented from actually coming to rest in this space by theair currents created by the rotary motion of the bobbins and spindles.In Fig. 4 the arrows indicate, in a general way, what I believe to bethe paths taken by these currents of air. There is a down draft fromoverhead through and around the drawing rolls and the thread boardswhich naturally tends to carry lint into the space between the rows ofspindles, but the whole body of air in said space is in motion and theair currents have ample velocity to prevent the lint from depositing onthe smooth upper surface of the plate 36 which, while adapted to catchit, is not allowed to do so. Contributing to this result is the factthat the frame. is exceptionally narrow due to the removal of the creelfrom between the two rows or lines of drawing rolls into a positionabove them. and the whole space from the creelto the plate 36 is opensufficiently for the down flow of air which will carry with it particlesof lint and fly substantially as fast as theyare shed by the bobbins andby the strands passing through the drawing rolls. The air currentsrelied upon to keep the plate 36 clean are the result-of centrifugalaction due to the rotative motion of the bobbins. They apparently throwair away from the frame at opposite sides and thus draw air fromoverhead down through the space between the rows of spindles. Naturallythese air currents are more effective in a narrow space than they wouldbe in a wide one. In this machine the frame has'a maximum width of twoieet'and the two lines of spindles are sixteen inches apart. "While thisdimension can be Varied, itis preferable to keep it within eighteeninches.

"Since the-creel and the cover plate 36 remain clean indefinitely, dueto the causes above described, the greater part of the necessity forcleaning this frame is eliminated and the labor involved iscorrespondingly reduced. I

In addition to contributing to the object of maintaining the frameclean, as above described, the narrow frame also hasthe very importantadvantage of occupying only about half the floor space that is requiredby the spinning frames now in common use. 1 Every square foot of spacein a mill translates itself into a certain fraction of the overhead costof the product manufactured by that mill. Consequently, such a saving infloor space as that just mentioned is a substantial practical advantage,A further advantage of the creel structure is the fact that it can bemanufactured very economically.

The thread. board above referred to is made in sections individual tothe respective sections of the spinning frame. Each section comprises abar 5 of circular cross-sectional form supporting a series of lappets.Each of the lappets also is of novel form and includes a thread guide43, Fig. 6, which mayconveniently be made of wire twisted at one end toform the usual pig-tail eye. The shank of. this guide extends through ahole formed. to receive it in a bushing 34 and it is locked adjustablytherein by a set screw 45. A sleeve 46 encirclin the rod 4 and lockedthereon by a set screw 41, supports -the bushing 44 for rotativemovement around the bar, and the bushing is slotted throughout aportionof its circumferential extent to receive the set screw 47. For

- a more detailed illustration and description of this thread boardstructure reference should be made to the parent application abovereferred to.

bodiment in other forms without departing from the spirit or scopethereof.

This is a division of my copending application Ser. No. 402,581, filedJuly 16, 1941. The claims of this case are limited to those featuresrelied upon to prevent the accumulations of lint and fly in the machineor, in other words, to keep the machine clean. These features are notclaimed in the parent application. The thread board features abovedescribed are not claimed in this application but are claimed inapplicants co-pending application Ser. No, 549,740, filed August 16,1944.

Having thus described my invention, what I desire to claim as new is:

1. In a spinning frame, the combination with spinning instrumentalitiesincluding two lines of spindles positioned at opposite sides of theframe and adapted to support bobbins, and mechanism for driving saidspindles, of a cover located between said lines of spindles andextending across the space separating them where its upper surfacecooperates with the spindles and bobbins to cause the air currentscreated by the rotation of the bobbins to keep said surfacesubstantially free from accumulations of lint or fly.

2. In a spinning frame, the combination with spinning instrumentalitiesincluding two lines of spindles positioned at opposite sides of theframe and adapted to support bobbins, and mechanism for driving saidspindles, of a cover positioned between said lines of spindles andextending substantially across the space separating them, said coverhaving a, smooth upper surface adapted to catch lint andrfly settling inthe region between said rows of spindles, said lines of spindles beingspaced apart by a distance such that said cover is kept substantiallyfree from lint and fly by the air currents created by said bobbins.

3. In a spinning frame, the combination with two parallel horizontallines of spindles positioned at opposite sides of the frame and meansfor supporting and driving said spindles, of two rows of sets of drawingrolls for feeding strands of fibrous material laterally toward oppositesides of the frame to the respective lines of spindles, said rows beingpositioned back to back and separated by a space too narrow toaccommodate a creel, whereby the width of the frame is greatly reduced,and a cover extending across the space between said lines of spindlesand having an upper surface cooperating withsaid spindles and thebobbins mounted on them to cause the air currents created by therotation of said bobbins to keep said surface substantially free fromaccumulations of lint or fly.

4. A spinning frame according to preceding claim 3, in combination witha creelmounted above said drawing rolls and supporting horizontal rowsof bobbins from which the strands of roving are drawn by said rolls andfed to the spindles, the supporting means for said drawing rolls andbobbins providing free space for the flow of air from said bobbins downand around enclosing the mechanism in said frame .below the spindlesincluding a cover extending across the space between said lines ofspindles and having a smooth upper surface.

6. In a spinning frame, the combination with spinning instrumentalitiesincluding two lines of spindles positioned at opposite sides of theframe and adapted to support bobbins, mechanism for drivingsaid-spindles, of a cover extending across the space between said linesof spindles, side plates cooperating with said cover to substantiallyenclose the space below said cover and the mechanism contained therein,said plates including sections readily removable for exposing theworking parts thereunder.

7. A spinning frame according to preceding claim 3, in combination witha creel mounted above said drawing rolls and supporting horizontal rowsof bobbins from which the strands of roving are drawn by said rolls andfed to the spindles, a skeleton thread board having parts for guidingsaid strands of roving in their travel to the respective spindles, saidcreel structure and said thread board being constructed to provide aminimum of area for the collection of lint and fly and the space betweensaid bobbins and. the area between said lines of spindles beingrelatively open and unobstructed for the free down flow of air from thebobbins, around said drawing rolls, and into the space between saidlines of spindles.

8. A spinning frame according to preceding claim 3, a construction inwhich the overall width of said frame is not over approximately twofeet.

9. In a spinning frame according to preceding claim 3, a construction inwhich the distance between said lines of spindles is not overapproximately eighteen'inches.

10. A spinning frame according to preceding claim 3, in combination witha creel structure mounted above said drawing rolls and constructed tosupport the bobbins from which strands of roving will be drawn by saidrolls and fed to the spindles, the supporting structures above saidcover being substantially devoid of horizontal surfaces on which lintand fly can collect and the region between said bobbins and said coverbeing relatively open and unobstructed for the free down flow of airfrom the bobbins around said drawing rolls and into the spaceimmediately above said cover.

" LOUIS M. COTCHETT.

